[pasmembers] Re: Anyone interested in joining an asteroid occultation expedition on January 21?

From: Rick Cunningham <phxf1fan@xxxxxxxxx>
To: pasmembers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thu, 14 Jan 2016 07:46:09 -0700

I would help but will be in Las Vegas.
Rick
Hi everyone,

At the February club meeting I'll be giving a talk on "Getting Started as a
Citizen Scientist with Occultation Timing".

However coming up on Thursday, January 21 there is an opportunity to
participate in an actual asteroid occultation recording expedition just
south of Phoenix .  It is a fairly bright star with a event time at a
reasonable hour, although of course the next day is a work day. :-(

At about 10:57pm MST on that date, the 81 km diameter asteroid (115) Thyra
will occult a magnitude 9 star in the constellation Cancer for up to 7
seconds along a path that includes the Phoenix area, south to Casa Grande.
In the map below, the two blue lines represent the northern and southern
edges of the shadow path.  (The shadow of the asteroid will be exactly the
same size as the asteroid, and it will take about 15 minutes for the shadow
to cross the entire North American continent.)

[image: Inline image 1]

The gray lines in the map above represent 8 other observers who have
already registered their intent to record the event.  The position of the
gray line in each case shows what portion of the asteroid they will see the
star pass behind, assuming the asteroid follows its expected path (the
green line).

The two red lines represent how much uncertainty there is in whether the
asteroid will actually follow its predicted path - in this case, the
uncertainty is quite low, meaning a high probability of actually seeing the
star disappear behind the asteroid.

So between ~7pm and 11pm on Jan. 21, I will try to put out 5 or 6 remote
stations somewhere along the roads marked in blue on the map below,
starting in Fountain Hills and working south.  Each station will consist of
a small telescope on a "tabletop" mount with a video camera and video
recorder.  Smaller roads are better for finding places to set up the
equipment and leave it for a few hours without having it disappear.  (So
far that has not happened to me).

[image: Inline image 2]

So if you would like to spend your evening driving some back roads and
helping to get some hard data on the size and shape of an asteroid, please
contact me off the list and we'll figure out a place to meet that evening.
We will try to place our stations between the other registered observers to
make the "picket fence" as complete as possible.  One or two people will
remain at each station to start the video recorder 5 minutes before the
event time and stop it 5 minutes after.  Then you'll put the equipment in
your car and we will all meet somewhere convenient to get the equipment
back to me.  I'll use this data as part of my talk on Feb. 4th.  Older kids
who are interested are welcome to accompany their parents.

If you have questions, send me an email or give me a call.  Hope you can
join in the fun!  (A map of the asteroid's shadow path across the USA is
shown below).

Thanks,
Ted Blank
(603) 817 9814

[image: Inline image 3]

References:
- [pasmembers] Anyone interested in joining an asteroid occultation expedition on January 21?
  - From: Ted Blank

[pasmembers] Re: Anyone interested in joining an asteroid occultation expedition on January 21?

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